It is a commonly accepted fact that the ideology of communism has been responsible for over 100 million deaths worldwide. What is less obvious is the tragic cost caused by it’s step-child, ‘democratic socialism’.
Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiya, from the Cato Institute’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperit, looks at just India, and asks the question: "What would have happened in India if that country had liberalized its economy ten years earlier than it did?"
His findings are both tragic and unsurprising:
With earlier reform, 14.5 million more children would have survived, 261 million more Indians would have become literate, and 109 million more people would have risen above the poverty line. The delay in economic reform represents an enormous social tragedy. It drives home the point that India’s socialist era, which claimed it would deliver growth with social justice, delivered neither.
A worthy, if depressing, read.
(H/T Cafe Hayek)